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Seattle is now the proud owner of half a ton of political mail -really!

I just stepped on the scale. Not to weigh myself (you don’t want to know) but to weigh the volume of political mailers I received this year. Okay, I’m in advertising and I get that “direct mail” (aka: junk mail) is a valuable tool to reach voters -especially for “local” candidates that don’t have the big budget for TV (psst, ever hear of cable, if not, call me).

Seattle got a half ton of political mail. Literally.

First off, all total, my political mail weighed in at 2.6 pounds. In fairness, that included the “voters guide” which is the only actual piece of printed material I use (does any actually read all that other stuff?), but there was also an early wave of stuff that got tossed out that I’m not counting.

Figuring there are roughly 2 million households in the greater Seattle metro area, that would put the trash count at about 520,000 pounds, or about half a ton of this stuff.

In going through the mail, it was interesting to note that NONE (not one) of the pieces I received had “printed on recycled paper” on it (you’d think a smart candidate would put that on there to appeal to us greenies). Also, very little mention was made of the environment by ANY candidate.

So here’s the question. Does all this mail influence your vote? Would “made with recycled paper” or any mention of the environment influence your voting decision?